School bus detour leaves NYC parents questioning students' whereabouts for hours
Parents in Queens said they were left wondering where their kids were for hours Monday after the bus picked them up from school.
The Department of Education said the bus has three schools on its route, including P.S. 20 in Flushing and a junior high school, but a delay at one of them, as well as a nearby fire, changed the route and the order of pickups and drop-offs.
For a 7-year-old student named Laylah, her usual 15-minute bus ride ended up taking roughly two and a half hours.
A spokesperson for bus company Logan Transportation says the driver "followed protocol," but Laylah's family said the driver would not explain to them what was happening over the phone, something the bus company says drivers should do when it's safe to do so.
Laylah's mom and grandmother recorded phone calls Laylah made during the bus ride. In the recording, students sound increasingly frantic and scared, yelling for the bathroom and asking to be taken back to the school.
"Please let me go! Please let me go!" one student can be heard saying.
They say there are older kids on the bus they don't recognize, and that the driver isn't taking the usual route. At one point, Laylah tells her mom the driver is "smiling and laughing at us."
Laylah later told her family that the older students bullied her and her classmates – 6- and 7-year-olds – by shouting profanities at them.
"B****, shut the f*** up. Shut your f******* mouth," a student can be heard saying.
"Every last child got off crying and was traumatized 'cause they didn't know what was going on. The parents didn't know what was going on," Laylah's grandmother Nicole LaTorre said. "You know what it's like to not know where your kids are for two hours? And the school, they can't help much because they wasn't even aware of the situation?"
Laylah's family said all elementary students on the bus were eventually dropped off at one location, rather than outside their homes, due to street closures from the nearby fire.
Logan Transportation alleges that, at the drop-off location, a parent got on the bus and physically assaulted the driver.
Laylah's family said they didn't witness the incident. The DOE said they're aware of the driver's claim.
The DOE also said they've already removed one of the schools from the bus route in response to the incident, and is investigating, adding that, "All appropriate actions will be taken based on the findings."
